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Trustees push back on 4% lot-rent escalator; seek CPI recalculation and reserve modeling
Summary
Parks staff proposed a 4% fixed escalator for lot-rent rates over a five-year term based on a 10-year weighted CPI average; trustees objected to the 2021 outlier and asked staff to re-run scenarios (including removing 2021) and to model water/sewer/trash service-fee impacts and reserve needs.
Director Michael Brown presented proposed lot-rent rates for permittees covering a five-year term (2026–2030). Brown’s spreadsheet used a 10-year weighted Consumer Price Index method and produced a fixed escalator of 4% for the next five years. Trustees raised concerns that the 2021 inflation spike (8% in the data set) is an outlier tied to the pandemic and urged Brown to test scenarios excluding 2021, which several trustees said would likely lower the escalator toward 2%.
Trustees discussed legal constraints: permit language currently ties rent adjustments to a 10-year weighted CPI average, but trustees and counsel suggested there is precedent for excluding anomalous years or adopting a fixed multi-year escalator. Brown said he would rework the numbers and provide scenarios before the next meeting and consult county legal counsel on permissible approaches.
Relatedly, Brown proposed increasing annual service fees to better match water, sewer and trash costs. He recommended raising the trailer-park service fee from $115 to $175 (covering water, sewer and trash) and the cabin trash service fee from $70 to $90 to avoid annual invoicing for modest overages. Brown explained unit costs used in the model: a wholesale water price of $2.47 per 1,000 gallons and an estimated sewer charge of $5.49 per 1,000 gallons (based on Casper rates and usage assumptions). Trustees asked Brown to prepare scenario modeling that shows both user-impact and a plan for building modest capital reserves to cover pump and lift-station replacements; Brown said the restricted sewer fund currently holds about $238,000 and that two pump replacements are estimated at roughly $16,000.
Trustee Peter and others said a stable, defensible rationale for the change will be necessary when presenting the proposal to the Board of Revenue (BOR) or permittees. The board agreed staff should circulate adjusted CPI scenarios (with and without the 2021 outlier), legal analysis of the permit language, and service-fee reserve modeling ahead of further board action.
Next steps: Brown will remove or test the 2021 data point and return with alternate escalator calculations, consult legal counsel on contract language tying rents to CPI, and present service-fee modeling and capital-reserve scenarios at a future meeting.
